Nov 15, 2010

Australia’s Qantas Boeing 747 jumbo jet bound for Argentina was forced to return to Sydney on Monday after electrical problem, Australian airline said.

The carrier, which has grounded its A380 superjumbos after a mid-air engine blast earlier this month, said the flight carrying 199 passengers spent about two hours in the air before landing without incident at Sydney airport.

"We're not entirely sure what the issue is at this stage," a Qantas spokeswoman told AFP. "It's a minor technical issue at this stage."

The captain of the flight, which had been destined for Buenos Aires, had requested priority to land after turning around and dumping fuel, she said.

The airline said the latest incident was not related to two other incidents with Boeing 747s since November 4.

On Friday, a Qantas 747 turned back on a domestic flight in Australia after pilots detected abnormal vibrations in one of the plane’s two General Electric engines. A week earlier, a Sydney-bound 747 landed safely in Singapore after an engine caught fire minutes after takeoff.

Dow Jones Newswires, quoting an unnamed source, said Monday Qantas may have to replace up to 14 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 jets on its fleet of A380s, which each have four of the turbines, before the fleet can return to service.

The Australian carrier indefinitely grounded its fleet of six Airbus A380 super-jumbo jets after an engine exploded earlier this month.

British aircraft engine manufacturer Roll Royce said last week that the failure of a turbine component on one of its Trent 900 engines caused the oil fire that led to the explosion as the jet took off from Singapore on a flight to Sydney. The jet, with three working engines, returned safely to Singapore, making an emergency landing.